Any advice to get gold rank in the Security Expo?

[Forsaken1]

So far I have tried taking out the maximum loan, placing security doorways at every entrance including bathrooms, and a camera room with loads of cameras. I also upgraded my donation stands to large so they don't get full, placed multiple drink fountains and vending machines so my guest hunger/thirst stays above 80%, created a second entrance to attract guests to the northern exhibits, and hired at least 3 guards for each assigned zone, of which I made 4. I have multiple attempts with no stolen exhibits but still cannot get the donations above silver rank. What am I missing here?

[Kessra]

you don't need all the space you've got. You can move exhibits closer to the front and cut off the remaining unused building. Sell off all the stuff in the back you don't need for some extra $. While money is short at the beginning, it isn't later on. Focus on beautifying and upgrading exhibitions, especially their bonus buzz things, to attract more visitors. Also check what type of visitors you have and what they have as bonus goal. Once they reach their bonus they will donate a big amount of money.

In regards to thieves, I didn't bother building a camera room at all. It is just to expensive at the start. Focus on placing security booths at the right positions and staff them up and have some extra guards roaming around. While some sell off or at least send the bone exhibitions to the inventory, I placed those in the exhibit were the freezers were and readjusted things a little bit to better fit in.

As you can always pick up and drop guards directly onto thieves once you spotted them, play in slower or normal speed and pause the game when you see them. Moal thieves and the ones spawning in toilets can usually be seen early on, especially when not many other visitors are nearby. During the year just pick up additional security guards and place further booths as you need.

[That Crazy Squirrel]

Originally posted by Forsaken1:

So far I have tried taking out the maximum loan, placing security doorways at every entrance including bathrooms, and a camera room with loads of cameras. I also upgraded my donation stands to large so they don't get full, placed multiple drink fountains and vending machines so my guest hunger/thirst stays above 80%, created a second entrance to attract guests to the northern exhibits, and hired at least 3 guards for each assigned zone, of which I made 4. I have multiple attempts with no stolen exhibits but still cannot get the donations above silver rank. What am I missing here?

Here's some of the stuff I did.

• You can max out on loans. (don't bother with sponsorships)
• Move everything around closer to the entrance.
• Decorate everything, if you have the decor to achieve maximum buzz on exhibits go for it.
• Knowledge carries over from normal levels but I'm not sure if that helps with donations. If it does it might be worth it doing some analysis before tackling the scenario.
• Sell all the stuff you won't need (no gift shops, no interactive stuff).
• You will need benches, food and drinks but there's no need to spam everywhere.
• Sell all but one toilet room. (Making the bogeyman lives a little harder).
• Hire an army of guards regardless of which traits they have. (30 to 40 guards, the hiring list refreshes quicker in the scenario)
• Don't bother with zones, that'll just mess things up, let the guards free roam and grab one whenever you or your guards spots a thief.
• You can drag and drop the guards near the thieves to catch them. (yes, even when the game is paused)
• Spam cameras, I don't think there is a limit for how many you can link to one camera room so go nuts.
• Don't forget to slow down the game's time, it'll make it easier to spot thieves and drag guards around when things aren't moving at breakneck speed.

Even with all this I got gold with only 20 days left.

The biggest "pet peeve" with this (and the buzz scenario) is that the timer starts ticking the second you gain control of the game and it takes about 80 in-game days for the museum to fill up properly. (cos the guests aren't in as much of a hurry as you are)

[Naktya]

Kessra said the main tricks but I want to add that you can take all of the loans to hire as many security guards as you need. You shouldn't become bankrupt before the end of the scenario.

Like Kessra wrote earlier, move everything near the entrance. I only kept the entrance room and the botany room and closed off everything else. I sold the gift shop and kept two bathrooms (one in each room). You want your visitors to spend as much time as possible viewing the exhibits, not walking around and doing something else. By putting your exhibits near each other, you also make it easier for the guards to spot thieves and collect donations since they don't need to walk as much.

I did use a camera room and put cameras everywhere. You can get a lot of thieves at the same time in this scenario. Since the guards are walking the thieves back to the entrance, you loose them in the museum for a few minutes. Having cameras helps when a lot of your guards are away from the museum. I had one security chair and one camera near the entrance and near each bathroom. All the exhibits where also covered by at least one camera. You want to catch the mole people as soon as you can and cameras help you a lot with that.

Place big donations bins everywhere. Your visitors will then be able to put money in another neighbouring bin when one is full.

And maximise your buzz as much as possible. Put decorations around all the exhibits. Use marketing campaigns (i.e. extended general campaign, prehistory and botany). I also had one tour for every theme (plants, fossils, frozen exhibits, dinosaur bones, ...). More buzz = more visitors and more donations.

With all of this, I got 130 000$ in donations, more than enough to get the gold.

[Prometheus]

I'll gives a simple and quick explanation:

1. Move exhibits near entrance. Decorate them.

2. REDUCE TICKET PRICE. Emphasized because by default it is too expensive for this map. They are taking a 10% buzz penalty from it. You can turn that into a bonus by reducing the price.

3. Get rid of vending machines. They just waste time, visitors food and drink needs don't build fast enough to cause issues in this scenario.

4. Do standard security stuff to keep the crooks away. You can spawn in infinite guards so do so. Camera room is too much set up and too expensive to be worth it.

[Dorsal Axe]

Pack away the incomplete dinosaur bone exhibits. They offer much less buzz, and you need guests to be getting as much as possible to maximise donation income.

Get 1 or 2 security guards assigned solely to running around collecting donations, everyone else on actual security tasks. You could change your runners' uniform too just to have a visual way to tell which guards won't be catching thieves.

[ggsnake]

I was hoping that the museum would be designed well enough to get the gold rating if you catch all thieves, it is a thief catch scenario after all. Instead, catching thieves becomes a side job, and the main objective is to move everything to the entrance. Kind of weird if you ask me :o

[Forsaken1]

Originally posted by Prometheus:

I'll gives a simple and quick explanation:

1. Move exhibits near entrance. Decorate them.

2. REDUCE TICKET PRICE. Emphasized because by default it is too expensive for this map. They are taking a 10% buzz penalty from it. You can turn that into a bonus by reducing the price.

3. Get rid of vending machines. They just waste time, visitors food and drink needs don't build fast enough to cause issues in this scenario.

4. Do standard security stuff to keep the crooks away. You can spawn in infinite guards so do so. Camera room is too much set up and too expensive to be worth it.

Ticket price seemed to be the biggest factor I was overlooking. Dropping the ticket price down to $40 and moving the exhibits closer to the entrance got me to gold easily. I still found the Camera room helpful, as some thieves were deterred without forcing my guards to escort them all of the way to the entrance.